10 contradictory statements and moments from Jose Mourinho

For all his massive success – he’s won trophies at all of the clubs he’s been managing, from Porto and Chelsea to Inter Milan, Real Madrid and Manchester United – Jose Mourinho remains one of the most divisive figures in football history. If he’s at your club and providing success, you probably love him. But if he’s elsewhere, he’s the perfect pantomime villain.

Part of the reason for this is the way he loves to antagonize opposing players, coaches, and chairmen. The Portuguese boss loves nothing more than to make an inflammatory statement to get under the skin of his opponents – but unfortunately, due to his constant needling, he has been exposed as a hypocrite on numerous occasions.

Here are ten of the best contradictory statements or moments in the career of Jose Mourinho.

#1 It’s a game of points....or is it?

Two thumbs up for a draw, according to Jose?

Mourinho’s Manchester United side went unbeaten for a long period of time in 2016/17 – 25 Premier League games without a loss, to be exact, from October 2016 through to May 2017. But due to their large number of draws during the run – twelve – they only finished in 6th place. It was in early April when Mourinho made a classic contradictory statement about this fact.

At the time, United had gone 20 games unbeaten but had drawn ten of them. When asked about this, Mourinho seemed pleased with himself. He said

"I know as an example 10 matches, 10 draws,10 points. Or 10 matches, five victories, five defeats,15 points. What's better? The 15 points obviously, but in terms of looking to the future, I prefer to look at 10 matches, 10 draws because you have something that's not easy to have.You are quite solid mentally, difficult to beat, you fight against difficult circumstances, that kind of mentality of resilience, it's good to have it."

It’d be a fair enough argument....except in 2014, Mourinho was quoted as saying that

“if you get 10 draws, you get 10 points. If you win 5 and lose 5, you make 15 points. I’d prefer 15 points and lost matches than 10 points and be undefeated”.

Basically, it seems that Jose just makes his arguments to fit around his situation at the time, does it not?